


The Stem's Cry

by Sarita1046



Category: Aladdin (1992), Aladdin - All Media Types, Aladdin: The Animated Series
Genre: Clothed Sex, Earth Day, F/M, Light Bondage, Mildly Dubious Consent, Nature Magic, Non-Penetrative Sex, Vines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 17:22:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14406855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarita1046/pseuds/Sarita1046
Summary: In the episode "Garden of Evil", what exactly transpired between Jasmine and Arbutus during the time it took for Aladdin to reach the garden? Written for Earth Day, 2018! Thanks to OzQueen for a lovely story that inspired this fanciful prequel/headcanon.





	The Stem's Cry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OzQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OzQueen/gifts).



> Musical inspiration: "Nyx" by Brandon & Derek Fiechter

“You can’t possibly leave me…I’m not finished yet.” 

Those words both angered and chilled her. Ever since the ordeal with Jafar, the concept of being held against her will infuriated Jasmine to her very core.

And yet…whereas Jafar had seemed ruthlessly particular in his attempt to overthrow her father and take Jasmine captive, Arbutus seemed strangely detached. Self-absorbed to the point where his would-be malevolence almost came across as benign. No, perhaps not self-absorbed…simply _engrossed_ in his art above all else.

Still partially ensnared in the thick, dark green vines, Jasmine bit her lower lip, as Arbutus once again turned his back to create another bed of lavender flowers with a gesture of his hand. It was…beautiful, she had to admit. Only to herself, of course.

 _Living beauty_ , he had called her.

“Your father mentioned that I haunted his dreams,” Arbutus’s smooth voice almost made Jasmine start. _Almost_. “I can’t help but wonder if his anticipation had a hand in his choice of your name.”

Something turned over in Jasmine’s chest. Had this creature had such an effect on her father – an indirect impact on Jasmine before her very birth? Even before the death of her mother...

“So I’m to be a flower in your garden? Just another pretty thing on public display?” she protested again.

“Not public display, Princess,” Arbutus turned then to face her. “For my inspiration only.”

“But I’m not yours!” Jasmine nearly seethed, “Humans have our needs. We need to eat food and have fresh air!”

“Needs…” Arbutus trailed off as he slowly approached Jasmine, the tendrils creeping up around her once more, oddly drawing her away from the creature that wielded them – until she felt herself being lifted up toward the latticed canopy, the sunlight from above filtering onto her cheek in a dappled pattern. “Wouldn’t that be a change of setting? Never needing to cater to the needs of the other humans of your kingdom, of that boy, Aladdin. I am sure he has desires, as humans tend to. With me, you wouldn’t need to succumb to the will of another.”

“And what do you call this right now?” she glared down at him, no longer wanting to give him the satisfaction of struggling against the vines encasing her waist.

“Is the warmth of the sunlight not pleasant?” Arbutus steadily held her gaze, for once looking up at her instead of down. “You have my word. I hold you only so you don’t run, for your father made a bargain. However, as you now serve as my sole source of mobile inspiration, I will strive to evoke only elation.”

As if to punctuate his words, tiny rivulets of water began trickling from the lattice above her, falling upon her shoulders and mingling with the vines that held her. Idly, she registered the vines moving ever so slowly, snaking from her hips and up her torso, narrowly avoiding her breasts.

“You take pleasure in ensnaring humans…” Jasmine observed in a voice that was breathier than she would have liked, trying to avoid watching the vines as they moved seemingly of their own accord.

They weren’t separate beings, though. This was all an extension of the being called Arbutus. 

“You are the first human to inspire my work,” Arbutus stated plainly, moving a hand slightly, the lattice branches spreading to allow more sunlight.

Even from her current position, Jasmine could now make out the dew droplets that also covered Arbutus’s treetop-like head covering.

“Where do you find all this water in a desert?” Jasmine wondered, just now also noticing the quietly rushing waterfall behind Arbutus. Surprisingly, her upper torso remained free enough to reach up a hand and capture a droplet roaming down her opposite shoulder.

“My power stems from the earth, granting knowledge of all its secrets,” Arbutus replied easily, “Beneath these dunes, lies an oasis, far too deep for humans to reach. The Roman army that ventured here in the past one-hundred summers were hot on its trail. They never found it.”

"Romans," Jasmine knew well of these brutes, ransacking the region surrounding Agrabah during her grandfather's reign as Sultan. "Then humans have visited your...kingdom before."

"They camped in close proximity," Arbutus deadpanned, left hand flitting out to erect an array of orange blossoms about ten meters from the great tree beneath the lattice. "They proved wise enough not to venture inside, always speaking of the 'great oasis'. They seemed to believe it would offer them eternal youth. I pitied them, and manipulated dew from the oasis to fall from the air like rain. They survived the drought long enough to continue on their way. In the end, they attributed the alleged 'miracle' to the mysterious vined kingdom in the desert. They called it the Realm of Arbutus - the latter evidently referred to a tree in their language."

So that was how he got his name. She supposed he may not have had a need for one before his encounter with humans.

Jasmine wanted to kick herself at the sudden calm she felt, divulging enough thought to consider her captor's history – then nearly squealed when a water droplet trickled down the front of her pants, past her waistband…and into the dark curls below.

Surely, he couldn’t sense through the water as well? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if Aladdin or her father were coming for her. Did her father even remember where Arbutus’s kingdom was? Had the creature moved its location over the past twenty years?

Jasmine’s thought process stopped short as several more droplets joined the first at the apex of her thighs, provoking a tingle deep in her belly. And that was definitely a vine creeping around her lower waist, tightening ever so gently against the front of her pelvis, matching the location of the water within. Idly, she noticed a far smaller vine brushing along the side of her throat by her left ear.

The princess of Agrabah had long since shut her eyes, not wanting Arbutus to detect any reaction from the sensations caused by his creations. 

“What…what _are_ you?” Jasmine managed, hands involuntarily grasping the vines around her hips, setting her jaw to resist the urge to thrust into the pressure against her front.

“Someone who enjoys making my flowers bloom.”

First human, indeed. Clearly, this nature being was a keen observer.

Though she would eventually come to feel great shame over what happened next, the exquisite spasms that blossomed from the mounting tingle captured Jasmine’s complete consciousness in a way she had never experienced. Never – not even when Aladdin embraced her.

And yet, she kept her teeth together to stifle any sound, her eyes stayed screwed shut against the soft glow of the sun and the penetrating stare of the creature below her.

The elemental known as Arbutus surveyed his latest flower. In truth, although she had sprung from a source other than his garden, she certainly made for one of the greatest muses he had ever known. The sounds she made that would have been inaudible to another human vibrated the very ground beneath the tree before which she remained suspended...the water in her blood cascading all throughout her form in a sudden rush like a turbulent river. Simply radiant. Observing those Roman humans and their habits had come in handy, after all. 

“Like the boy Aladdin’s genie,” Arbutus’s calm response to her previous question brought the princess’s mind back to the present like a lukewarm splash of water, “I represent a culmination of natural power. Only instead of drawing from fire energy, as do the jinn, my power stems directly from the earth – trees, bushes, flowers, rivers. The sunlight above. It is all _life_ , Jasmine. Life in its purest form before humans evolved the need to tamper. Unlike the jinn, there are not many of my kind left. Humans tread far more carefully around fire than a plant or tree. The desert, where humanity tends to be scarce, remains the safest place for my kind."

Jasmine said nothing, subtle comprehension mingling with peaceful afterglow.

“Am I correct in assuming…” Arbutus turned away again then, as the thick vines gently lowered Jasmine to the ground and loosened from around her form, smooth and never thorny as they had been with Aladdin, “That you are feeling quite beautiful at the moment?”

Glancing up, Jasmine felt her cheeks grow hot. Once again, he stood far taller than her and his latest statement suggested he had seen through her façade. 

“Why…”

“Look at what you just helped create,” he subtly cut her off, stepping aside and gesturing to the bed of purple flowers that now not only entirely surrounded the great tree where the vines had held her, but extended out across a great portion of the grass floor adorning the entire area.

Dozens of flowers had become hundreds, all slick with dew. Jasmine couldn’t help but inhale a deep sigh of the fresh humidity around her.

Eyes still fixed on the flowerbed in wonder, Jasmine barely registered Arbutus’s next words. 

“My most precious treasure…my flower. You are exquisite when you blossom.”

Stumbling forward as the last of the vines slithered away, Jasmine righted herself, still managing to avoid meeting Arbutus's gaze, as he turned to her. In a final attempt at defiance, Jasmine nudged the vine nearest her right leg harshly with her foot - an action which didn't go unnoticed by Arbutus, as the dark tendril uttered that chilling, quiet shriek.

"So Jasmine, care to critique my art now?" He huffed.

"I think it's - it's beautiful," she finally surrendered, echoing his comment on her earlier...behavior. Indeed, no words could properly describe the visual aesthetic of the new bed of blossoms, the new, lush green tree across the way, complete with a pair of white doves...nor the entire garden, for that matter. All around her, the last vestiges of a dying magic reigned magestically. She could no longer deny its splendor.

 _The most precious treasure in full blossom_.

Though she would never let on to Aladdin, Jasmine remained haunted by those final words…uttered mere minutes before she managed to actually begin getting through to Arbutus – only to have Aladdin come slashing through with his scimitar blade. Brutalizing this place of natural beauty, true to the human image her former captor had set forth.

And somehow, as the garden wilted, so had Jasmine’s secret – her very first and only intimate encounter that had been entirely about _her_.

Most of all, she would never forget the terrifying, infuriating and painfully beautiful creature’s devastating cry of agony. Aladdin had Genie, and for a mere moment, Jasmine had had Arbutus. Not as a possession, but almost…as an equal. Only to be snatched away in the blink of an eye. Ultimately unsuited to a human relationship and yet still a tragically vanishing breed thanks to her own species.

Yes, she loved Aladdin...yet he would never learn the details of what had taken place within that living, sentient garden. How the entity she once only considered an abomination had proven himself capable of ministrations gentler than her human lover. How every other dawn and every other nightfall, she crept out of bed at his side to sit atop the grassy hill beside the red flower. Together, they would watch as the world welcomed the sun, moon and stars. After particularly rough days managing family affairs or matters of state, she even watered the surrounding earth with her tears.

Every day, the stem grew a little higher.

**Author's Note:**

> The flower is  
> the stem’s cry of beauty  
> to the universe.
> 
> -Vassilis Comporozos


End file.
